Gary Leatherman

Gary Leatherman has been developing broadcast television, interactive media and Web-based media for over 18 years.

I began my media career as a television producer with the national Emmy award-winning PBS science series, “Newton’s Apple”. It was pure joy to work on this classic science show. I reveled in the daily process of distilling the essence of difficult science concepts into entertaining and educational stories for our viewers to enjoy.

I segued into developing interactive science stories with the educational CD-ROM Science Series “What's the Secret?” based on "Newton’s Apple”. This was the first collaboration between Greg, Leslie, and myself and it foretold good things and even better projects. “What's the Secret?” was honored with many national & international awards in design and presentation. During the past decade, I have worked as an independent producer and project lead on numerous video, multimedia and web productions, producing projects for: United Airlines, The Learning Company, Science Museum of Minnesota, Target, Honeywell and the Mayo Clinic.

I returned to broadcast television as the Senior Producer for the pilot season, and again as Supervising Producer for the fifth and sixth seasons, of “DragonflyTV”– PBS’s groundbreaking middle-school science television series. The first season was a formidable challenge to create a science show demonstrating the scientific method - particularly a show middle-school kids would actually want to watch. I returned for the fifth and sixth seasons to change the series’ direction - this time to incorporate a science center in each story. We changed the title to “DragonflyTV - GPS”, souped it up with a new traveling host, and successfully promoted both science centers around the country and the value of using the scientific method to answer kids’ basic questions about the world. Apparently it worked, as the show recently won two National Emmy Awards for the sixth season - recognizing the program’s outstanding Editing and Cinematography. I couldn’t be more proud of the show and my team that made this honor possible!

My most recent projects include the development of a national television series for PBS based on O’Reilly Publications popular new magazine “MAKE: Technology on Your Time”. I am honored to be able to continue developing exciting, educational content for kids of all ages to enjoy, learn, and hopefully take with them in their own backyard explorations!